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Presidential candidate Jill Stein says Black Friday Shows How Economy
Doesn't Work for Working People

Says living wages needed to create economic sustainability and
justice

BOSTON, MA - Green presidential
candidate Jill Stein took note of the intense efforts of retailers to
stimulate demand with Black Friday spending sprees, saying that, "We all
want an economy in which workers have money in their pockets and retailers
have paying customers. But the reality is that healthier retail sales need
to come from real increases in worker incomes. Without that solid
foundation, Black Friday sales only result in people going deeper into debt
and cutting back later. If elected President, I will insist on making the
minimum wage a living wage."

Jill Stein noted that CEOs of
major corporations got a 23 percent raise last year while wages were
stagnating for most workers. "The wealth being generated by our economy is
increasingly funneled to the economic elite, leaving workers further behind.
A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you trapped in it. People are
working harder with less to show for it."

Stein went on to say that, "We
call today Black Friday for a reason. Today, and only today, the economy is
in the black, but it is in the red for the rest of the year. This is an
economy on life support, one that depends on one day of super-sales, and
supported by credit card debt to keep it going. This is not what a secure
future looks like. We need real prosperity based on rewarding workers for
their work."

The federal minimum wage was
last increased in 2009 and - when adjusted for inflation - the minimum wage
is now 30 percent below the 1968 minimum wage peak of $10.38 (in 2011
dollars). The federal minimum wage is $7.25 - just $15,080 annually.

Said Stein, "Raising the
minimum wage would inject billions of dollars in extra spending into the
economy and give immediate help to low-wage workers. That would result in a
sales stimulus that would really mean something."